Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bear_v	flesh_n	nature_n	5,440	5	6.3434	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75414	An Answer to a scandalous paper, wherein were some queries given to be answered. And likewise, therein is found many lies and slanders, and false accusations against those people whom he (and the world) calls Quakers. Dated from Dorchester in New-England, August 17. 1655. subscribed, Edward Breck, which was directed to a people at Rainforth in Lancashire, which he calls, A church of Christ. The truth is cleared of his scandalls, lies, and slanders, and he found to bee a reproacher of the Church of Christ. His paper and quæries answered by those people called, Quakers.		1656 (1656)	Wing A3345A; Thomason E875_4; ESTC R206566	30,171	38

do wrong nor to accuse falsly this will shew thee the deceit of thy heart and let thee fee thy vain thoughts that lodgeth within thee and the darkness of thy minde which thou hast made manifest by thy words who faith They depend not upon the Scriptures for a Light Here let the Scriptures try thee and judge thee who saith the Scriptures is the Light when the Scriptures saith Christ is the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world and every one that loveth this Light walketh in this Light and bringeth his deeds to this Light to be proved and tryed by the Light and he that doth evill hates the Light and turns from the Light least his deeds should be reproved And here let the Scripture judge and try thee whether thou doth not deny Christ Jesus who saith I am the Light of the world whenas thou saith the Scripture is the Light here thou denies him who is a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel Now let all see what thou hast to see or to judge with who denies the light of the body which is the eye for when the eye is single the whole body is full of Light but when the eye is evill the whole body is full of darkness And here thou art found now who art looking at the Letter without thee but thy body is full of darkness confusion and enmity against the Truth of God as thou hath manifested in this thy Paper And Christ Jesus said unto his Disciples Ye are the light of the world a city that is set on a hill cannot be bid Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven But thy works and thy Light is made manifest by thy envy that thou hast uttered forth against the harmless which thou knows nothing by But thou that hath no other Light to judge with but the Scriptures without thee which was spoken forth from another spirit then thou speaketh from now thou that taketh these words and speaketh them forth from a lying spirit which was spoken forth from the Light and Life and Power of God from the just and the living Truth was the Scriptures spoken forth from But thou who hath no Light to walk or speak by but what thy dark spirit gathers out of the words without thee were not like to speak truth for they that spoke forth the Scriptures the Truth was made manifest in them they did not speak from another or by hear-say as thou doth thy spoke what they knew and what they witnessed and bare testimony to the Truth and all who cometh into the same Truth beareth witness unto them and knoweth the same Truth as they did But this thou art ignorant of who hath nothing but the Husk and the outside the Kernal and the Substance thou knoweth nothing of but blessed be the Lord God for evermore the same Life and Power as they spoke from is witnessed and they that spoke forth the Scriptures are witnessed to be true by the same life and all such as thou who hath nothing but the Declaration of that life are seen and known and weighed and all your profession which is without the life and profession denyed and here is the Lambs war betwixt you and us you have the words and Declaration which the life sple we have the Life and Substance which spoke these words and so you have the outside who are born after the flesh persecutes us who are born after the spirit And so now read where thou and you all are who are found in this persecuting nature for I am sure if you will be tryed by the Scriptures you cannot finde that ever any of the Saints of God persecuted any but were ever persecuted and ever suffered persecution by those who had a profession as Christ Jesus was crucified by the chief Priests and the Elders Scribes and Pharisees who were the strictest professors of the Scriptures which spoke of him and prophecied of him which that age and that Generation had besides all the Saints Servants Prophets and Apostles that ever suffered did suffer by a people professing Religion So let the Scriptures be judg between you and us and if you will come to be tryed by the Scriptures you will be found of the same generation of Persecutors as ever was before you And whereas thou saith VVe depend not upon the Scriptures for Light hut from what we receive from a Spirit which casteth us into a Trance and what this Spirit is thou confesseth thou knows not and yet thou lakes upon thee to judge of this Spirit though thou confesseth thou art weak c. but thou saith thou tells what thou thinks Now here thou hast uttered forth thy weakness and thy nakedness appears in these words and thy bitter spirit in slandering that which thou knows not for that which tries the Spirits is Truth and Eternall and Infallible and speaks that is knows and beleeves not every spirit but tries the Spirits whether they be of God And from this Spirit thou hart shut thy self and by this Spirit do we try thy Spirit to be a Spirit of Error and Delusion a Spirit of Darkness which hath no light in it but thy Light is without thee that thou judgeth by and thou judgeth by thinking and this is for judgement Christ Jesus said Take heed that the Light which is in thee be not darkness he doth not say take heed that the Letter without thee be not darkness and he saith again If thy Light be darkness how great is that darkness and so here thou art in the darkness and yet judgeth of the Light but thy spirit is a fallibe Spirit and so cannot give true judgement upon that which is infallible and eternall But that Spirit which is infallible and eternall gives true judgement on thee and knows thee and tries thee and thy Light which is thee Letter without thee which is none of thine but anothers and with the same spirit as spoke forth the Scriptures thou art judged and thy spirit to be a fallible lying spirit and the same good spirit of God as spoke in the Holy Prophets Christ and his Apostles which is not divided but is one and the same for evermore the same spirit do we witness not another but the same as was before ever the Scripture was written and by this Spirit which was before Scripture was written do we judge thee and thy Light which thou hath from the Declaration Here thou confesseth that if thou had had no Scripture thou had had no Light but God is Light and all who knows him knows him in the Light and all who sees him sees him in the Light for the immortallity dwols in the Light but this thou knows nothing of and we do accord with and own and witness and have unitywith the same Spirit with all that spoke forth the Scriptures the Prophets Christ and his

and cry Peace Peace and he that putteth not into their mouth they even prepare war against them which the Lord sent Micah to cry against And those that seduce the people saying Peace and there is no peace and one builds a wall and another daubs with untempered morter those whom the Lord declared against by Ezekiel And those whom the Lord saith he is against who prophesie false Dreams and cause the people to erre by their lyes and by their lightness and say the Lord saith it when saith the Lord I never spake to them These are they whom we testifie against which all the true Prophets of the Lord were sent to bear witness against and therefore by them did they suffer and were called before Magistrates and Rulers and persecuted and hated of all men and made as the off-scouring of the world and accounted not worthy to live The same Testimony and the same Effects and Fruits of it in this Generation we who are of the world in scorn called Quakers do witness at this day in these Nations as many prisons and stockings and scourgings and whippings we have suffered which is our joy and riches which suffering is not worthy to be compared to the glory which is to be revealed And blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ who hath found us worthy and given us power not only to beleeve on him but also to suffer for his sake and the Scriptures of everlasting truth is fulfilled which hath said He was numbred among the transgressors and counted as Sheep for the slaughter and killed all the day long and this we witness to be out portion from this generation which goes by the name of Ministers and for no other cause that they have against us but for bearing witness for the living God and his Truth as it is made manifest in us by the same Spirit and Life and Power as all the Holy Men of God were sent Prophets and Apostles who were made Ministers of the Eternall Spirit these were alwayes sent to speak against those who had the form of Scriptures and the profession but alwayes persecuted the Life and Power that spoke them forth and as he that was born after the flesh ever persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now And by this Generation of Priests and Elders and High-Priests was Christ and his Apostles persecuted and accused and hailed and arraigned before Magistrates as ye may read throughout the Scriptures and all the righteous blood that hath been shed since Abel hath been shed by this Generation and so the Scripture is fulfilled which saith As a Troop of Robbers waits for a man so doth a company of Priests murther in the way by consent And for Magistrates we own such as Rule for the Lord who are a terrour to the evill doers and lay the Law upon the Transgressors who bears not the Sword in vain such as are for the praise of them that do well such we own and honour in our souls and are subject to for conscience sake but all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men we bear witness against in Magistrates Priests and people which act contrary to that of God in the Conscience for God is no respector of persons but of all sorts of people he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him and we honour all men in the Lord and he that ruleth well is worthy of double Honour and this we stand for and bear witness to and this Testimony we are willing if we be called to it to seal with our blood as many who have gone before us have done And so here thou may see and read thy Accusation to be false who saith we rail against MAGISTRATES and MINISTERS And whereas thou saith Truth is Beloved and that which is my grief that I have been informed and I dare not but beleeve it that there are men among you who have departed from the Faith and Purity of the Gospel to depend upon Iesuitical and Satanicall delusions I mean such as go under the name of quakers who depend not upon the Scriptures for Light but on what they receive from a Spirit which casteth them into a Trance what these Trances are let men of understanding judge for I am weak c. Answer Let all who reads thy words try thy beloved Truth as thou calls it which is that thou dare not beleeve lyes that which many hundreds can witness to the contrary of this that thou hast spoken which though thou saith there is men among us whom thou saith goeth under the name of quakers that depends upon Jesuiticall and Satanicall Delusions this we utterly deny and a Cloud of Witnesses we have which will stand against thee in this thing and witness it to be an untruth which thou confesseth thy faith dare not but beleeve and among many thousands which is convinced of the everlasting Truch of the everlasting God we do not know one Priest or Jesuit or Papist that owns us or joynes with us And so let all that reads thy Truth and thy Faith as thou call it see how far thou art from the Truth neither is there any among us that is brought into the Ministry to Preach the everlasting Gospel that ever did profess that Faith of the Romish Church And so whether thou be not found here in a Satanicall Delusion who is thus bclying and slandering and accusing falsely the innocent contrary to all Truth whether lyes and slanders and false accusations be not of of the Devill let all honest hearts judge And now let any who hath the least measure of God in them to guide their mindes unto Justice and Equity judge what Faith this is that thou art exhorting to who art found in such delusions of beleeving lyes thy self how thou can exhort to the Truth who art found quite contrary accucusing reproaching scandalizing and defiling the Truth thy faith which doth not purifie thy heart from this uncleanness we do deny and thy Hope which doth not purifie from these filthy accusasations we do deny and the Church of Christ wil deny it where ever it is and doth know and see that no lye is of the Truth And so this thy Faith which thou art exhorting to when the just and rightcous God cometh to plead with all flesh by Sword and by Fire thou and thy Faith which dare not but beleeve lyes wil perish and the hope of the Hypocrite doth perish when the over slowing scourge cometh Therefore take warning and now thou hast time prize it for the Judge stands at the doore who layes Judgement to the line and rightcousness to the Plummet and thy refuge of lyes will be swept away and thy Covenant with Hell and Death will be broken For the tryed Stone is risen the sure Foundation who judgeth with righteousness and reproves with equity Therefore turn thy minde to that which is just and equall and righteous that is of God which tells thee thou ought not to

then for evill doing for Jesus Christ hath suffered the just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God And for this Faith do we contend which was once delivered to the Saints and are willing to lay down our lives and to seal the testimony of our Consciences with our blood and this our faith is not to beleeve lies as thou doth which is manifested in thy Paper sufficiently and this is that faith which overcomes and gives victory over the world and beleeves in the Truth as it is in Jesus And thou begins and reckons from the Maryan-times the Generations of men famous as thou saith who stood for Faith and Holiness and the profession of true Religion I answer Thou may see what thy profession of true Religion ends in who art now in thy old age beleeving lyes and false accusations which thou hast no true ground for and are accusing and slandering the pure innocent Truth of God which is clear in the sight of God of these slanders which thou hast cast upon it for which the Just God will plead with thee when thy talking of a Faith will not serve thee nor thy profession of a true Religion when thou art persecuting and detaining the pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father this is to visit the Father less and the Widow in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world But thou art found in the desilement and casting thy filth of lyes and slanders upon Religion and therefore art thou found in the world one of them Therefore now repent of the evill of thy doings while thou hast time and turn thy minde to that measure of God in thee which tells thee thou should not lye nor slander nor accuse falsly there is something in thee that tells thee these things ought not to be there is that of God in thy conscience which tells thee thou ought not to beleeve lyes nor to take reports from the mouths of slanderers and to cast them upon the innocent who was ever reproached and slandered by the world and so in this thou art become one with the persecutors that ever persecuted the appearance of God where ever it was made manifest So let that of God in thy conscience now examine and search what thou art doing who art slandering those whom thou knows not nor hath nothing to lay to their charge but what thou hath by hear-say and consider whether this be as thou would be done by But in this thou hast manifested thy ignorance of God and of his pure Truth which leads to do unto all men as they would have men to do unto them and here thou art found out of the Truth and out of the Life that gave forth the Scriptures who takes the Scriptures but for a cloak to cover thy nakedness withall but art ignorant of that spirit that spoke them forth as thou makes it manifest in thy next words where thou saith Those men gave not their mindes with Balaam to look out for visions to curse Gods people Here thou hast manifested thy ignorance of the Scriptures for when Balaam looked out at the temptation of Baalack he would have cursed them but he did not look then to the vision of God which said he should not curse them And so all who wil but read that Scripture may see thy confusion and ignorance for in that Vision and Prophesie Balaam did see and know the people of God and could not curse them while he kept to it untill he did hearken and look out at the temptation of Balaack And so here read thy ignorance in Scripture Besides in this thou speaks against all the Holy-Men of God as Moses Samuel Nathan Daniel Isaiah Paul Peter Iohn c. and all that ever was taught by the immediate Spirit of the living God was taught by Vision and Revelation and this thou exhorts those whom thou calls the Church of Christ from Therefore let all that reads thy words mark thy Blasphemy and ignorance of God and of his eternall living Truth as it is in Jesus the only begotten Son which now the Father is revealing in this his day and the Son likewise is revealing the Father Glory and Praises be to the living powerfull God for ever And thou speaks of railing against Magistrates and Ministers which is a false accusation for railing we do deny but we speak the Truth in Christ and lye not our consciences also bearing us witness in the sight of God And the Ministers of Christ we own who are Ministers of the Spirit and not of the Letter for the Letter killeth but the Spirit maketh alive and those who have the Ministration of the Spirit which quickens we own and have unity with them who is made not by the will of man nor the will of the flesh but by the wil of God according to the Promise of life which is in Christ Iesus who have not received their Gospel by man but by the Revelation of Iesus this Ministry we own and this Ministry we witness But that Ministry which is received from man who teacheth for Doctrine the Precepts and Commandments of men which are found in the steps of the Scribes and Pharisees which Christ cryed wo against who sit in Moses seat who are sayers but not doers who bindes heavy burthens grievous to be born but will not themselves move them with one of their fingers but all their works they do to be seen of men love the uppermost rooms at Feasts the chief seats in the Synagogues are called of men Master who devour widows houses and for a pretence make long Prayers who are blinde guides such as Christ Jesus cryed wo against who is our Lord and Master and Shepherd of our souls but who are found acting in those things which he cryed wo against we do deny and turn from them for Christ Jesus hath left us a Rule to know them by their fruits which makes them manifest to be the ravening wolves inwardly which Christ Jesus speaks of who have the Sheeps clothing the Saints words and profession but their ravening wolvish nature appears by their persecution and tyranny which they exercise in this Nation of England as most Goals in this Nation can witness who have many of the innocent harmless people of God shut up in Dungeons and Holes for no other cause but for bearing witness for the living God against the deceit by which they keep poor people in blindness and ignorance of God who are the same as ever the Lord sent his true Prophets to cry against who bear rule by their means and commit the horrible and filthy thing which the Lord sent Ieremiah to cry against And who seek for their Gain from their quarter and preacheth for Hire which the Lord sent Isaiah to cry against who feed with the sat and clothe with the wool which the Lord sent Ezekiel to cry against And such as make the people to erre that bite with their teeth